Winnabago Jounery w/ Cummins vs Cat diesel

[fishorgolf]

The next few years wife and I plan to move from our AF truck camper to a class A diesel, I seem to keep coming back to the Winnabago Jounery in the 35 to 37 ft range. My question relates to the few years where both motors were offered or at lease the Cat motor was used. I understand your Rv or hamburger is only as good as the guy making it that day. Would you be scared off with the Cat motor. Were not in a hurry to buy but know the day will come where we will want a bigger rig than the TC. Thanks for your input, have fun and be safe.

[Ductape]

IMO the transmission is a much more important discriminator, if a sizeable tow is in your plans. The weight ratings of the 3000 are much better than the 2xxx series. I don't know if the models you're looking at ever used the smaller trans, but it's something to be aware of.

Happy hunting.

[fishorgolf]

Thanks for all the below / above post, I tried to search the topic 1st before asking the question, but couldn't find much. I feel good about where we are, doing our homework for now. And knowing that last years new coach, might turn up as our coach soon. Marry Christmas, have fun and be safe.

[Fleet_Man]

We bought ours new, factory order. I thought long and hard over the engine choice, the $15,000 upcharge for the Cat and the package that came with it was not worth it to me. The 5.9 ISB-02 and MH2500 have performed quite satisfactorily for us, over 90,000 miles on the MH and at least 80k of those miles towing our 4,000# Taurus X all over the country, coast to coast. Let the coach layout and features drive your choice, either drive train will get you where you want to go. Yes, the Cat is the more powerful option.

[John_Wayne]

Some came with the Cummins 5.9 engine and the smaller allison trans. I'd look for the 330 up Cummins with the allison 3000 trans.

[Acampingwewillg]

When we are talking Cat vs Cummins you can also bet that any Cat/Cummins repair facility can and will work on either engine....

I have an older 3176b in our coach and the very first place I took it 15 years ago was a Cummins repair shop who had absolutely no problem working on ANY part of my engine.


Knock on wood, in my years of ownership, engine issues have been pretty much non existent. The simple stuff, I do myself, the house side of the coach, I also try to do myself.

[FIRE_UP]

fishorgolf wrote:
The next few years wife and I plan to move from our AF truck camper to a class A diesel, I seem to keep coming back to the Winnabago Jounery in the 35 to 37 ft range. My question relates to the few years where both motors were offered or at lease the Cat motor was used. I understand your Rv or hamburger is only as good as the guy making it that day. Would you be scared off with the Cat motor. Were not in a hurry to buy but know the day will come where we will want a bigger rig than the TC. Thanks for your input, have fun and be safe.

fishorgolf,
First, the Journey is and has been, a very, very popular coach. A good buddy and his wife just purchased an '05 39' Journey 39K. It's equipped with the C-7, 350HP CAT. Our coach, an '04 Itasca Horizon 36GD with the C-7 330HP CAT, runs like a top. His runs just as nice. We have many other friends with the CAT C-7 engine and not one of them has had any issues. Of course good quality and periodic maintenance is the key to engine survival.

Yep, there's been numerous discussions on CAT vs Cummins. NOBODY wins those discussions. It's a preference thing. And don't get too swayed by the naysayers that claim the the CAT service centers are non-existing or dwindling. Ain't happening. We've traveled almost all over this nice U.S. and, we've seen CAT service centers EVERYWHERE. And many of them with motorhomes in them. Some will be better than others but, that goes for any service center, no matter what kind of engine one's got.

The Winnebago Journey as stated, has been a very popular model by Winne, for years. They come on a Freightliner chassis, most of the time on an XC. We now have 85,000 miles on ours and, it's running and operating just fine. I didn't get a chance to adjust the valves at the designated 30K or 40K (I keep reading and hearing conflicts in the required mileage) so, I had it done at 60K in Sparks NV, at Cashman CAT. What a great place to get work done. I accompanied the tech while he was doing it. I've had a few hundred engines apart so, I kinda knew what he was doing.

As I noticed and he agreed, even at 60K, my valves were not very far out of adjustment. After adjustment, there was zero improvement in any aspect of operation. 7 mpg before, 7 after. 27 psi boost before, 27 after. But, the knowledge that they've been done is settling.

Anyway, If you've got any questions on anything, our Horizon is a very close sistership to one you may be considering. Good luck.
Scott

[socaladam]

CAT vs. Cummins - Article to read: http://goecmdiesel.com/index.php?route=blog/post&post_id=16

Once done, realize there are more Cummins repair facilities for RV's than CAT.

CAT engine repair shops are likely to be more prevalent in rural areas over their metropolitan counterparts.


When it comes to power and longevity, both will outlast the majority of motorhomes they are attached to as long as you service them in regular intervals and provided there are not other issues plaguing the drivetrain.

[Bruce_Brown]

We've had both Cat and Cummins. Which engine I had would be the last thing I'd be concerned with. Both will easily outlast the MH they're pushing.

[ncrowley]

There have been a number of discussions about Cat vs Cummins. I have a Cat C7 and it runs great. I would not base my decision on which manufacturer built the engine. Both are good engines. I would base my decision on how well the engine was maintained. Is there a complete set of maintenance records, which means the maintenance that was supposed to be done was done. For example, just doing oil changes is not adequate.

[jplante4]

Very happy with the 3126 in the Sahara. CAT stopped making OTR engines after the DPF era because their C13 engine (2007-2009) were fraught with problems. So after 2010, you really don't have a choice; it's Cummins or Ford V10 gas.

A 3126B with an Allison 3000 tranny is as bullet-proof a drive train as you can get. Mine is going strong at 150,000 miles. They are limited to about 350 hp, but that should be plenty in the length range you're looking at.

A couple of things to look for in the Mx logs when looking at a coach with a CAT motor are valve lash adjustment done at 30,000 and every 100,000 after and the fan hub bearing which has a grease fitting on some motors. It's easily forgotten during chassis service.